The idea of the Point of the Week posts is to stimulate discussion of the manipulation and application of a specific PP in actual combat. The PP's are workable within all MA systems and their study will greatly enhance the effectiveness of ALL arts. However, you must first have an advanced understanding of your art before you begin looking at PP's!

Here is a basic guide to PP attacks. Please pay close attention to the Safety section.

Stomach 32/ST32 or Fu Tu (Crouching Rabbit)

This weeks point is Stomach 32 or ST32 for short. It is located on an Earth meridian and is of Yang polarity according to TCM theory. It is located on the front of the thigh here.

Striking

I find that this point responds extremely well to a sharp direct strike directly into the muscle at a 90 degree angle.

A hard strike here will paralyze the entire leg. This point causes a great deal of internal shock and will cause an opponent to be completely disorientated for a split second or two. It will also cause the leg to straighten, the hip to drop back and the upper body to lurch forward.

Applications

As always applications are always subjective, and to be used as a basis to stimulate thought.

As a pre-emptive strike a sharp front kick using the tip of the shoe can be effective on this point. Although in reality if you can hit ST32 you'll more than likely have a clean shot at the knee or groin which require less accuracy and would be as effective. If the leg is slightly bent it can make it extremely hard to get the correct angle and direction for this point.

This point is great for knees, but as mentioned above the leg needs to be straight to get the right angle at direction so you'll need to do something to straighten the leg. One possible way to do this is to take the head up and back, bringing the opponent up onto the balls of their feet. A palm heel, uppercut or rising elbow would be suitable for this. This will cause the hands to rise up making it easier to drive the knee into ST32. Another way is to take the head forwards by striking the groin or a good solar plexus shot. This will hunch the body over, straightening the leg, although making it slightly more difficult angle for the knee.

The last application I'll mention is striking the point using an elbow. If you slipped or are dropped to the opponents feet a sharp elbow to ST32 can be a great equalizer. While your opponent may consciously guard their groin, the thigh maybe an accessible target. The shock caused by this strike combined with the effect it has on the bodies posture, make it ideal for catching someone with a quick shoot style motion and dumping them into the floor. You could then assume a mount or get to your feet and continue attacking.